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Jon Tester rocks with Pearl Jam in Montana

In between swigs out of a champagne bottle, Eddie Vedder, the band’s lead singer who has a cult-like following, singled out Tester before a packed hall at the evening concert, saying that the band turns down gigs often for candidates - but not for the Montana Democrat.

“It’s not everyday you get to do a benefit for a candidate you believe in,” Vedder said, as the spotlight shone on Tester and the crowd erupted in cheers.

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In 2006, the Tester campaign hosted Pearl Jam for a concert and was the beneficiary of its proceeds. This year, the campaign took a different approach.

Tester’s team sold 400 tickets at a cost of $250 or $500 a piece, keeping the revenue for its campaign war chest. Those who purchased the $250 tickets were treated to an evening reception with the band; $500 ticket-holders got to eat dinner at a pizza joint with the group and the senator. Also, a couple of Tester donors from Billings won a raffle awarding them two prime seats on stage during the Sunday night concert.

But despite the atmosphere of the popular band’s rare appearance here, there was still the reality of the slugfest of this hard-fought campaign.

Republicans quickly dismissed the Sunday events.

“It’s no surprise that after raising $1.7 million for President Obama, Pearl Jam would come to the aid of Sen. Tester, who supports Obama 95 percent of the time in Washington,” said Rehberg spokesman Chris Bond. “But maybe Sen. Tester can spare a few minutes from his busy schedule of planning rock concerts to explain to the workers at the Corette plant in Billings why he voted for the Obama EPA regulations responsible for mothballing their facility.”

Tester spokesman Aaron Murphy responded in kind.

“As Congressman Rehberg attacks Pearl Jam from his fundraiser in California, Jon Tester is busy talking with Montanans about serious issues —like the Congressman’s failure to pass a Farm Bill and provide job certainty for Montana, and his belief that Pell Grants are the ‘welfare of the 21st century,’ ” Murphy said.

Indeed, the band certainly has shown its loyalties to Democratic causes in the past. Vedder performed at a fundraiser for Obama last month in Tampa that pulled in some $1.7 million.

Tester and Ament both hail from the town of Big Sandy in north-central Montana, which had a population of about 700 when they grew up. Tester — six years Ament’s senior — would referee the rocker’s junior high basketball games. Their families were neighbors.

“My dad cut his hair, and I think they probably butchered a couple of our pigs,” Ament said. “I think if you asked either one of us when we were 15, 16 or 17, we were here right now, we would cast you aside and say: You are drinking too much.”

Readers' Comments (11)

Bloomberg already projecting a rise in unemployment for September and the unemployment rate for August has been adjusted to 8.2% from 8.1%.

America when you hire someone who knows nothing to fill the most important job in the world these are the kinds of results you get.

You have a choice: a repeat of 4 more years of total insanity or a change to someone who has the experience to fix the problem as well as someone who does not want to fundementaly want to dhange the things that made this the greatest nation on earth.

Regardless of your opinion of the candidate or the band Pearl Jam, we should be glad there is more awareness in the political process by combining the two. My guess is a majority of the concert attendees were there for the music, and not to support the candidate.

From what I know about Pearl Jam and their fans are this... The band has a history of being political and being progressive. The band was a part of a congressional testimony against the monopoly of Ticketmaster in the 90's. They're not your typical "dumb" rock band.

Their fans are very loyal and there is a tight relationship between the two. If you have Netfilx, I recommend watching the documentary created by Cameron Crowe "PJ20". I caught it on PBS last year and found it very interesting.

Testy is toast, they must shaved some of his brains with those flat top hair cuts. Isn't that the same hair cut frankenstien had, and I think they also cut off some his brains when they gave him his flat top hair cut. So Tester thinks showing up at Pearl Jam concert is going to help him get relected to the Senate? He must think the voters in Montana are as dumb as he is after being Obummer's patsy for the past three and a half years? Think again Tester, you're toast.

This unrelenting war against women must stop and the misogynists waging it must be punished!

It was bad enough when Rush Limbaugh criticized law student/liberal political agitator Sandra Fluke for wanting taxpayers to pay for her birth control so that she didn’t have to lay out fifty cents or a buck for a condom. Okay, in her case poor Sandra needed a bunch of bucks since she seems to be exceptionally frisky.

It was bad enough that Limbaugh has said repeatedly over the years that “Feminism was established to allow unattractive women easier access to the mainstream.” Okay, he may have a valid point there considering such feminist icons as Betty Friedan, Ruth Ginsburg, Whoopi Goldberg, et al.

Nevertheless, to make a blanket statement that liberal Democrat women are uglier than Republican women is way beyond the pale and outrageously sexist as well as emblematic of how far some people will go, of how low they will go, in the ongoing war against the fair sex.

However, it was not Limbaugh who said liberal women were unattractive but a study by two female University of California Los Angeles researchers, Kerri Johnson and Colleen Carpinella has found that they are.

The researchers concluded after careful study that ”Female politicians with stereotypically feminine facial features are more likely to be Republican than Democrat” and that ”Female politicians with less stereotypically feminine facial features were more likely to be Democrats, and the more liberal their voting record, the greater the distance the politician’s appearance strayed from stereotypical gender norms.” . . .